Corporates Eager on Wireless Integration

The Economic Times, Hyderabad: Corporates world over are eager on adopting wireless-based technology services to get wired into a mobile information environment, despite the cut in IT spending due to economic slowdown and cashing in on this wave are wireless technology solution providers, which are pumping in funds to expand services and growing at 200 to 300 per cent per annum, an expert has said.

"Though the slowdown has dragged India two years behind Europe and Asian wireless technology giants, the sector is picking up extremely well. NetXCell has broadened its service range with a major focus on R&D, and would be pumping in at least $ 3 million next year to broaden its range of services," Dr Guniganti Prabhakar Rao, US-based chairman of the city-based NetXcell, told ET.

The company, promoted by the Pratima group, has been shortlisted by several corporates worldwide for providing wireless services based on WAP, SMS and IVR, an initiative launched last month in partnership with Cerebra Integrated Technologies Ltd.

The wireless services enables company executives with access to instantaneous information whether from the local intranet, internet or a corporate server just by keying in specific keywords into the mobile handheld device like a phone or laptop or a PDA," he said. The Royal Police of Malaysia has already shortlisted NetXcell for a project called Automated Vehicular Location Services based on the GSM networks, which will provide mobile integration of vehicular management, and NetXcell is also in talks with several banks in Dubai and corporates in US, Singapore and Netherlands.

"The ASP model, which was what we began with, holds no money anymore, and we've decided to focus on R&D. For this, we would be growing to anywhere between 60 to 300 strong company over the next six months," Dr Rao said. NetXcell provides Airtel and BPL Mobile, SMS based services across seven states and will continue its services to mobile operators, but will become a one-stop solution for mobile-wireless technologies, he added.